In this article, it is immediately stated that, "many students view school, and especially school science, as disconnected from their lives and interests." This is extremely true for many students and I feel that it is our duty as educators to capture the interests of the kids by making real-life connections with things they care about. This article talks a lot about scaffolding and modeling during research-based scientific projects. Without proper scaffolding, students seem to ignore the 'science' part of the lesson and strictly focus on the personal opinions and social interactions. I believe that modeling and scaffolding are extremely important, especially with science. Without proper knowledge of what is expected of them, students tend to do the 'bare minimum' and also fail to see the scientific reasoning for WHY what they are doing is important. With that proper knowledge, students can be more efficient when gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing data.
I really enjoyed reading about this teachers project and what he did to fill in the gaps to make it better. The driving question provided and excellent way to get the students thinking about the project and what they could do to "solve the problem." The teacher generated content questions kept students on the right track throughout the project and gave them some what of a starting point and left the rest up to them to come up with ("The rest" that I am refering to is the student generated questions). The proposed actions section allowed the students to take some inneciative in their project and come up with their own solutions to the problem in which they were solving (before any data was collected). I think the best part of this project is the very last part which requires students to come up with their own solutions to the problem AFTER they have done their research. This not only allows them to apply the information they have learned, but it also allows them to reflect on what they first thought (their beginning solutions) and what solutions they think would be best after they did research.
Using focus sheets to help students take their information and organize it is a great way to help students with larger, more in depth projects. Focus sheets allow students to not only stay on task, but keep them from using any information that may hinder or distract them from what is really important.
Article Review:
Helping Students Make Connections
**http://www3.nsta.org/main/news/stories/science_teacher.php?category_ID=88&news_story_ID=49113**
In this article, it is immediately stated that, "many students view school, and especially school science, as disconnected from their lives and interests." This is extremely true for many students and I feel that it is our duty as educators to capture the interests of the kids by making real-life connections with things they care about. This article talks a lot about scaffolding and modeling during research-based scientific projects. Without proper scaffolding, students seem to ignore the 'science' part of the lesson and strictly focus on the personal opinions and social interactions. I believe that modeling and scaffolding are extremely important, especially with science. Without proper knowledge of what is expected of them, students tend to do the 'bare minimum' and also fail to see the scientific reasoning for WHY what they are doing is important. With that proper knowledge, students can be more efficient when gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing data.
I really enjoyed reading about this teachers project and what he did to fill in the gaps to make it better. The driving question provided and excellent way to get the students thinking about the project and what they could do to "solve the problem." The teacher generated content questions kept students on the right track throughout the project and gave them some what of a starting point and left the rest up to them to come up with ("The rest" that I am refering to is the student generated questions). The proposed actions section allowed the students to take some inneciative in their project and come up with their own solutions to the problem in which they were solving (before any data was collected). I think the best part of this project is the very last part which requires students to come up with their own solutions to the problem AFTER they have done their research. This not only allows them to apply the information they have learned, but it also allows them to reflect on what they first thought (their beginning solutions) and what solutions they think would be best after they did research.
Using focus sheets to help students take their information and organize it is a great way to help students with larger, more in depth projects. Focus sheets allow students to not only stay on task, but keep them from using any information that may hinder or distract them from what is really important.